The FTSE 100 Index insurance and pensions company Friends Provident has stated that the number of claims for critical illness that have been declined on the basis of non-disclosure have decline by one third in 2007 compared to the previous year. This is because Friends Provident promised to still pay for a proportion of critical illness claims where unrelated non-disclosure had occurred.

Last year the company paid out £35,700,000 in critical illness claims, which amounts to a staggering 86.5% of claims for that year (an increase from 81.3% in 2006).

This means that the number of refusals for non-disclosure was down from 9.9% in 2006 to 6.5% in 2007. 7% of claims were still refused because definitions of illnesses and/or conditions as stipulated in policies were not matched, but then even this was an improvement of the previous year's refusal rate of 8.8%

The median age for claimants was in the mid forties, claims for cancer remained the highest proportion and the average remuneration was just under £60,000.

The company hopes that these improvements in the number of critical illness payouts will increase consumer confidence in insurance products, being both a benefit to the company and the wider industry.